What a tobacco-free pouch actually is.

The basic idea

A nicotine pouch is a small white pouch placed between the lip and the gum. It contains no tobacco leaf. Nicotine is absorbed through the gum lining rather than by smoking or inhaling anything, so there is no smoke, no vapour and no spitting.

That last point does a lot of the selling. A pouch can be used where dip cannot — at a desk, in a meeting, on a plane, in a car with passengers — and that convenience is often what moves a customer across.

What's inside ours

• Plant-fiber base — the white filler that gives the pouch its body. Not tobacco.
• USP pharma-grade nicotine — pharmaceutical-specification, not food-grade.
• Flavoring and sweeteners — also to pharmaceutical specification.
• Moisture regulators and pH adjusters — these control how the pouch feels and how the nicotine is released.

Each can holds 20 pouches. Certificate of Analysis is available on request for the lot you receive.

Tobacco-free versus snus

Traditional snus contains ground tobacco. A tobacco-free pouch does not — it uses plant fiber with nicotine added. They look similar and are used the same way, but the contents differ, and customers who ask are usually asking precisely because they've heard the words used interchangeably.

Versus dip and chew

No spitting, no tobacco, no visible product in the mouth. For most converts these are the reasons, in that order.

Versus vaping

No device, no battery, no charging, nothing to leak, no smell. A can costs less than a pod and doesn't need hardware. It's a genuinely different proposition rather than a variation on the same one, and the vape customer usually understands that immediately.

What "tobacco-free" does not mean

Regulation

Being tobacco-free does not remove these products from FDA tobacco-product regulation, and it does not remove age restrictions. If you want a genuinely nicotine-free option for accounts that won't carry nicotine at all, that's CapFuel caffeine pouches.

What to tell a first-time customer

Start at 6 mg. Try a mint before a fruit. Leave it in for around 20 to 30 minutes rather than chewing it. And expect a tingle — that's normal and it settles.